Synapsida
Metaxytherium floridanum
- Synapsida
- Therapsida
- Mammalia
- Placentalia
- Afrotheria
Synapsida
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Metaxytherium is an extinct sirenian (the group that dugongs and sea cows belong to). Likely living in groups and eating from kelp forests along the shores, Metaxytherium has been found in off-shore deposits from most continents, and as a genus survived from the Oligocene to the Late Pliocene (~26-3 million years ago).
That makes Metaxytherium a very long-lived genus for a mammal. The species shown here, M. floridanum, is known from excellent material, including type specimen USNM 24477, which is the basis of this reconstruction. M. floridanum lived from around 14-7 million years ago, and its fossils have so far been restricted to (you guessed it) Florida.